Road safety is a key public health issue in society. Unintentional injuries resulting from road traffic accidents are the number one cause of death in the 1 to 34 age group. Such accidents occur each day with as many as 140,000 people injured on the world's roads, more than 3,000 deaths, and over 15,000 people disabled for life (WHO-2001). Vehicular crashes happen in a split second. Sometimes they are avoidable, sometimes they are not. Four key factors in vehicular collisions include the road conditions, the weather, the vehicle itself, and most importantly, driver skill. The driver's skill, attentiveness, and judgment play a key role, and the speed of the vehicle is most important in determining the severity of the crash.
When a driver is distracted, tired, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol, they are less likely to react as quickly or safely to driving situations. Driving requires the driver's undivided attention so that they can react to any driving situation, especially when they don't know the skill level or the emotional condition of other drivers on the road. If the driver is not paying attention to their own driving or the driving of the others, the slightest mistake can prove costly. Driving at speeds that exceed the posted speed limit accentuate the potentially hazardous situation that may result if corrective action is not taken. The repercussions from speeding and collisions include fines, increased insurance premiums, and demerit points that result in increased driver-licensing fees. Governments know that money is a key motivator to reduce speeding and to avoid collisions, and the cost of being caught speeding or having an accident continues to rise.
Local road safety initiatives are commonly implemented to reduce accidents and injuries resulting from drivers of vehicles who speed within community school zones and parks. In certain municipalities, photo radar and Red Light Camera (RLC) technology is used as a means to enforce traffic safety laws, particularly speeding and red light running. This helps reduce dangerous driving behaviour and benefits the community by reducing speeding and collisions. Locations of such photo detection systems are visible within the general community via road signs, and are accessible on the Internet on municipal police web sites. Such access to information is provided to increase an individual's awareness of the RLC locations. The responsibility of noting such signage or of seeking out the information from the municipal police department websites is the responsibility of the individual. Individuals also have the choice of being more attentive to the signage, noting such information in their own memory or on paper maps, or programming their laptops or GPS navigation systems.
Portable GPS receivers capable of programming way-point (points of interest) markers is one alternative that can be used for the purpose of making note of RLC locations based on latitude and longitude coordinates. Most GPS receivers can also calculate and display vehicle speed through a LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or LED (Light Emitting Diode) display. Visual displays requiring driver attention can distract a driver of a vehicle from watching the road ahead, and may result in an unsafe driving environment. Such devices may violate the AMA (Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers) “2/20 requirement” for telematics devices installed in vehicles (20 seconds of visual attention to complete assessment/interpretation of information presented from telematics device, of which no single glance shall be longer than 2 seconds). Such map-based navigational systems are also complex to use and program and are relatively expensive.
There are various prior art devices which relate generally to vehicle information systems. CA 2,150,942 (Kao) discloses a map data based position correction for a vehicle navigation system. The system uses a map database and the GPS system to determine the location of a vehicle on freeways or rural highways.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,118,403 (Lang) discloses a speed trap information system that provides information to authorized users regarding the location of speed traps via a wireless communication network connected to a computer wide area network. The system includes the use of a detector for speed detecting equipment, such as a radar detector, which detects the presence of speed detecting equipment and transmits the detection information into an electronic device in the motor vehicle. The electronic device communicates to a physical location device, such as a GPS receiver, which provides the specific location and direction of the motor vehicle when detection occurs. The electronic device is also coupled to a wireless modem that connects to a wireless communication network and to the wide area network. Connected to the wide area network is a central server that receives uploaded information from a plurality of other motor vehicle operators to create a large information database. Authorized users are then able to log into the central server and download information regarding the location of the speed detecting equipment operating in a specific roadway
U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,905 (Welch) discloses a location-triggered reminder for mobile user devices. The mobile user device, such as a personal digital assistant, a wireless telephone, a car phone, or any other programmable device that the user generally has with him or her, is equipped with a global positioning system (GPS) receiver and is programmable by the user to alert the user to when he or she arrives with the device at a predetermined location, as well as to disclose to the user whatever information the user chose to associate with that location (e.g., a “to-do” list).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,149 (Fast) discloses a global security system for determining the position of an object to be protected using a local or global positioning system and issuing messages to a monitoring message center at predetermined times and/or at times when the object to be protected is under an alert condition, such as being outside an allowed position zone during a defined time period.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,848,373 (DeLorme et al.) discloses a computer aided map location system (CAMLS) which provides correlation and coordination of spatially related data between a computer (PDA/PC/EC) and a set of printed maps typically printed on paper depicting surface features at desired levels of detail. A first set of constant scale printed maps substantially coincides with or is overprinted with equal area grid quadrangles of a first scale grid. The first scale grid quadrangles are identified by a first set of unique names. The PDA/PC/EC has a computer display or other computer output, a first database, and display subsystem. The first database includes the first set of unique names of the grid quadrangles of the first scale grid. The boundary lines of the respective first scale grid quadrangles are identified in the first database by latitude and longitude location. The display subsystem causes the display of a selected grid quadrangle or gridname on the PDA/PC/EC display in response to a user query. The displayed grid quadrangle or gridname is correlated with a grid quadrangle of a printed map from the first set of printed maps. The PDA/PC/EC may have access to a second database or multiple databases of latitude and longitude locatable objects (loc/objects) for display on selected grid quadrangles. Alternatively or in addition the PDA/PC/EC may incorporate a user location system such as a GPS location system for displaying the location and route of the CAMLS user on the display. Multiple level scales of grids and corresponding multiple sets of maps at the different scales are available. Communications links are provided between CAMLS computers and CAMLS users in various combinations
U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,842 (Brown et al.) discloses a vehicle tracking system employing global positioning system (GPS) satellites which provides extremely accurate position, velocity, and time information for vehicles or any other animate or inanimate object within any mobile radio communication system or information system, including those operating in high rise urban areas. The tracking system includes a sensor mounted on each object, a communication link, a workstation, and a GPS reference receiver. The sensor operates autonomously following initialization by an external network management facility to sequence through the visible GPS satellites, making pseudo range and delta range or time difference and frequency difference measurements. No navigation functions are performed by the sensor, thereby permitting significant reductions in the cost thereof. The raw satellite measurements, with relevant timing and status information, are provided to the communication link to be relayed periodically back to the workstation. Differential corrections may also be provided at the workstation to increase the accuracy of the object location determination. In normal operation, three satellite measurements are required to compute the location of the object, but for a short time period a minimum of two satellite measurements are acceptable with time, altitude, and map aiding information being provided by the workstation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,304 (Chubbs, III) discloses an integrated GPS radar speed detection system in which a global positioning satellite system (GPS) and a radar detection unit, in wireless communication with the GPU, are used for tracking and determining the speed of a vehicle. The system may be manually activated, or more preferably activated by an external source of radar signals, such as may be emitted by a police “speed trap”. The unit includes means for recording and storing speed data of the vehicle, and to alerting the operator of the vehicle to a “speed trap” situation
U.S. Pat. No. 5,916,300 (Kirk et al.) discloses a method and an apparatus for automatic event detection and processing. A positioning system receiver includes a position measurement device and a logging device. The position measurement device is configured to receive and process signals from a positioning system. The logging device is coupled to the position measurement device for recording data received from the position measurement device. The logging device records the data at a current logging rate. The positioning system receiver detects an event via an external sensor or with reference to satellite data, for example. In response to the event, the logging device automatically modifies data logging processing such as the current logging rate. Additionally, to allow a post processing system to go backwards in time relative to the event, the current logging rate may be increased for a predetermined amount of time preceding the occurrence of the event. According to another aspect of the invention, the data logging processing of a survey system, such as a real-time kinematic (RTK) system including a base reference station and a roving unit, may be altered based upon an event. Positioning system data is received. A first subset of the positioning system data is recorded prior to the event being detected. The first subset of positioning system data may include real-time roving unit position solutions. If the event has been detected, a second subset of the positioning system data is recorded. The second subset of the positioning system data may include data used for post processing.
A warning device available by Cyclops UK Limited, under the trade name Cyclops and described at www.cyclops-uk.com, makes use of GPS information to detect location of a vehicle in relation to one of a plurality of designated trigger positions. Each trigger position corresponds to a given location defined by GPS coordinates and includes a speed limit associated therewith. An operator warning is activated when the vehicle approaches one of the trigger positions. A more severe operator warning is activated if the vehicle is exceeding the speed limit associated with the trigger position being approached. The device is limited in its use in that its database only includes data related to photo radar locations and the speed limit at those specific locations. No information is provided with regard to complete road segments, but only limited information as to specific locations are provided in the database. As no roadways are provided in the database, the device is of little use for tracking overall safe travel of a vehicle along various roadways which do not include photo radar devices.